Welcome to the list Gill in Madrid but originally from Scotland. If you ever
make it to Barcelona you should be aware that other parts of Spain have
different words to describe the different ways to serve coffee. Be careful.
There is a slight confusion between the Castilian and Catalan languages but
also within the Castilian too. If you have a 'machado' in Madrid you will need
to ask for a cortado here. If you ask for a 'tallat' you'll get the same thing
but you'll get extra brownie points for using the local language, assuming of
course that you can pronounce the word correctly and that the waiter is
Catalan (which is unlikely, most are immigrant from other parts of Spain). If
you go to the Canary Islands you'll find that the coffee is extremely cheap
and also that the milk in it is in fact condensed or evaporated milk rather
than fresh or UHT milk which is the norm here. We also have a variation called
a 'trifasic' (black coffee + shot of rum/anis or whatever liquor you want +
milk). A 'carajillo' here is called a 'cigalo' and is the same as the trifasic
without the milk. This is what the trainee traffic cops have with their donuts
at 07.00 each morning. Experienced cops have a straight rum or anis or cognac
before returning to their patrol car. I didn't drink coffee at all until I
came to live in Catalonia and now love it in all it's many guises except with
ice, 'cafi amb gel', as it's called here.
In my sojourn around the SW of the US in 1996 I only managed to find one good
coffee in the whole trip, and that was in the cafi at the rim of the Grand
Canyon. Not impressed with coffee in the US at all. Anyway, enough rambling
for the moment. If you come to Barcelona, Gill, give me a call. I'll find you
a good coffee, assuming you like to drink coffee,
mike in bcn
